Texas County Courthouses

I’m trying blogging while on the road. It was easier when I had a walking hot spot – but now it’s just this clunky old phone. I’m seriosly thinking of trying to do all my traveling data stuff on the phone. That way, no worry about gigabytes and where you are, etc.

Not too much on the courthouses on this short trip. We’re @ Black Rock & we’ve photographed all the courthouses around here. I did go into Llano yesterday ( updated the courthouse there. When we took our pics here, they had restored already, but in 2006 they went back & restored the tower to its original design. Also, I wanted to go inside. But just as I arrived, the courthouse was being locked. She was nice enough to let me in, but I stayed just on the 1st floor and the courtroom was locked.
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I also got pics of Big Red – the historic Llano county jail. Quite a gem. Look for me to upload these new pics next week.

I’ve completed the latest round of uploads – which included 13 new county courthouses (Kenedy, Kendall, Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, LaSalle, Lavaca, Lampasas, Lee, Leon, Live Oak,  Limestone, and Llano), two towns   (Bracketville & Junction), one retired courthouse (Kinney), 4 historic jails (Live Oak, Kimble, Leon and Kendall),

I’ve also redone the Courthouse Collections index so that you don’t have to go through an extra step to get to the index.  And because the index is going to be so looong, I’ve added better navigation within the index so that you can more easily jump around on the index page.  Hope you like  that feature.  I really hope, in the future, to be able to add another navigational tool using a Texas county map – but that’s going to take additional knowledge and a lot of work.

This brings to 64, the number of county courthouses currently uploaded.   We still have about 40 more counties in our cache – but it is starting to look a little bare.  So I guess that means we need to be hitting the road a bunch more.  The weather seems about to start breaking from this unbelievable heat we’ve been enduring this summer (anyone here still doubt global warming?).  So hopefully we’ll be on the road again soon – at least for some short excursions.

OK – maybe a little melodramatic – but the fact is, Mission San Jose has reopened it sanctuary and unveiled its beautiful new retablo – which is as faithful a reproduction as researchers could come up with.  The interior of the mission now matches its historical significance as the ‘Queen’ of the San Antonio missions.

Today – Sunday, we went to Mission San Juan.  We had heard that it was closing for renovations after mass this weekend, but as it turns out – it’s after mass next weekend.  This church is sorely in need of the attention that is about to be  bestowed on it.  The cracks caused by the shifting foundation have put it close to some collapsing.

Take some time to visit the pages I’ve included for both Missions.  As for County Courthouses – I’m setting myself up to add Kimble, Kinney, Kleberg, Lampasa, LaSalle and Lavaca Counties.  That means we’ll be well into the 2nd part of our first hundred county uploads.  And with a little break from the weather, we’ll be adding more new counties to the portfolio as well.

I’ve been busy making additions to https://www.tomstexascountycourthouses.com  The counties of Jackson, Johnson, Jefferson, Jim Wells, Karnes and Kaufman have been added.  In addition, I’ve also uploaded photos from Panna Maria (the oldest Polish parish in the US), the retired Karnes county courthouse in Helena, Espada Mission and Stinson Field.  If you get out to Stinson Field – don’t miss the cafe – good food and mango flan!  Stop by and take a look and drop off a message.  I always look forward to hearing from you.

As promised – here is my weekly missive – to be posted on Sundays.  It’s been way too HOT to be going outside and taking photos of any Texas courthouses.  In fact, it’s almost too hot to do anything outside.  Although, we did get the lawn mowed this morning.  I have hopes of being travels again this coming September – we’ll have to wait and see.  I would like to work as well, so that I can afford some travel, and that cuts down on available time for travel.

Still, we have over 50 courthouses that have not been uploaded as of yet.  That means I have enough uploads available to keep me busy for the next 3 – 4 months.  I know you’re wondering where the upload(s) are for this week, and I have to confess, I turned my attention to seeing if I could set up a website for the quilt guild.  I’ve created a prototype – and we’ll see if there’s any interest.  Once it’s set up, it really shouldn’t interfere with my main interest – the courthouses.

Visit back next Sunday for updates.  I’ll more than likely upload a few more counties during the week as well.

Happy Birthday Cherise – and many more!!

I was told by one of my legions of followers, that I should commit to posting on a regular basis if I want to have anyone follow my blog.  Message received and understood.  With that in mind, I’m committing myself to post every Sunday if at all possible.  That doesn’t mean that I won’t post on other occasions – but I will provide updates on Sundays.

I’ve spend a lot of time this weekend adding to the site.  We’re now up to 49 Texas County Courthouses actually shared here on this site.  We still have at least 50 more to share if we don’t do anymore.  In all honesty, we would be adding a lot to our portfolio this summer if it weren’t so darned HOT.  Am I allowed to say darned?

Anyhow, here’s the additions – Counties – Jackson, Johnson, Jim Wells, Kaufman, Karnes and Jefferson.  I’ve also added the retired courthouse in Karnes County, Panna Maria & the Immaculate Conception church there, and the town around Jackson County Courthouse in Edna.  The Highlights of this group are Johnson and Jefferson Counties.  Johnson has an absolutely stunning interior and Jefferson is probably the highest point of art deco design among Texas Courthouses.

Enjoy

I’m having trouble posting Frio County as the courthouse of the month – so I’m substituting Edwards for Frio.  Nice and solid, but nothing special – this courthouse embodies the Texas Hill Country.

I have a goal for adding 5 new courthouses to the on-line collection this weekend.  I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting family in Florida and it may seem that I ignored the site – but that’s not true.  First, I actually posted a blog entry while in Florida.  The only problem with that is I don’t seem to have posted it.  Hopefully, the reader will believe that I had made that attempt.

Second – I did actually go through each posted county page and ensure that it had the basic information should expect on each page – county seat location, architect, when built, style, and personal information and impressions.  I also have moved all of the County Collection tables to one page A-Z.  I have every intention of adding anchor on that table so that you will be able to jump from the top of the page to a particular letter and then back again.

I also have the intention of some day adding a Texas map and letting the site visitor pick their county of choice using that map.  I know a few other sites use that and so I know it’s possible.  I just haven’t been able to spend the time needed to be able to present that.  I  have hopes that now that my computer-savvy friend – Roy, is working less, he’ll be able to help me accomplish that goal.

I’m changing the county of the month to Frio County.  Sure not much to brag about – but everybody (or should I say every county?) deserves its’ moment in the spot light